Eyewitness Testimony and Why it Matters
One of the biggest objections that I often hear about following Christ is that it is "a bunch of fairy tales." Usually, when people dismiss Christianity with this argument, they are referring to the Bible in its entirety, and even possibly questioning the existence of a God. This is often an attempt to equate Christianity with Greek or Roman mythology and the many other ways that humans have sought answers to the unknown. What they often forget is that the Bible is made up of 66 distinct literary works of varying genres, from historical to prophecy to simply songs of worship, written by various authors over the course of millenia. The most amazing thing about these works is their incredible consistency and inerrancy across the board, but it would take years to go through them in detail (which is why people study the Bible for decades.)
So for the purposes of TODAY I just want to focus on a few books that tell ONE story, and that story will lead to understanding all the rest.
You see, the key to understanding the big picture lies in meeting one person: Jesus. And we meet Him in the Gospels, through the eyes of the people that knew Him.
Most of our knowledge of history relies on the records of people who saw things happen firsthand and decided to write them down. In fact, as long as there have been courts, the primary way of figuring out what actually happened in any situation is through eyewitness testimony.
The story of Jesus is no different, and I would love to encourage you to get to know Him by reading His story in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
So who are these people that wrote the Gospels? Are they anonymous? Nope. It's pretty clear from the way they are written, just exactly who it was that wrote them and why. Also, are they people who heard word of mouth stories that were passed down for centuries and then wrote them down, with all the errors of a game of telephone? Also no. These were people who knew Jesus, traveled with Him, and saw firsthand the things He did.
It's important to remember that like with all human writings, the Gospel writers didn't realize that it was important to write these things down until long after Jesus had died and had risen. As things were happening, their minds were literally being blown. So they consulted each other's accounts and helped each other remember things, and their accounts have slight differences due to perspective and writing style and what they were personally focusing on. The same thing happens with witnesses in court.
So let's meet them.
Matthew was a Jew and a tax collector who Jesus met early in his ministry and called to follow Him. He was very a very meticulous record-keeper and you can see in his Gospel, that it was written for Jews to understand how Jesus was the promised Messiah. Read more here.
Mark was a companion of Paul and Peter and is mentioned frequently in Acts. It is thought that he wrote the very first Gospel, taken directly from the account of Peter. That is, he wrote down what Peter told him. Mark was there when Jesus was arrested. Read more here.
Luke was a Greek and a physician, and a companion of Paul in forming the early Church. His Gospel is aimed more at the Gentiles and was written to bring non-Jews to Christ. Luke is also the author of Acts. Read more here.
John was another of the 12 like Matthew, the son of Zebedee and the younger brother of James. A fisherman like Peter, John followed Jesus at his calling at the Sea of Galilee. He stood at the cross as Jesus died. Read more here.
It's important to know that these were real people who knew Jesus and saw what happened, and who wrote about it while the memories were still relatively fresh. How do we know this?
How can we be sure that what we are reading today are the actual writings of these witnesses and not something that someone made up later and left for us to find?
Historians use something called the study of manuscripts to to ascertain the authenticity of historical documents. But that's for the next blog. In the meantime, take a look at what they wrote! Read the Gospels and meet Jesus!
Drop us a note if you have questions.
Until next time...
So for the purposes of TODAY I just want to focus on a few books that tell ONE story, and that story will lead to understanding all the rest.
You see, the key to understanding the big picture lies in meeting one person: Jesus. And we meet Him in the Gospels, through the eyes of the people that knew Him.
Most of our knowledge of history relies on the records of people who saw things happen firsthand and decided to write them down. In fact, as long as there have been courts, the primary way of figuring out what actually happened in any situation is through eyewitness testimony.
The story of Jesus is no different, and I would love to encourage you to get to know Him by reading His story in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.)
So who are these people that wrote the Gospels? Are they anonymous? Nope. It's pretty clear from the way they are written, just exactly who it was that wrote them and why. Also, are they people who heard word of mouth stories that were passed down for centuries and then wrote them down, with all the errors of a game of telephone? Also no. These were people who knew Jesus, traveled with Him, and saw firsthand the things He did.
It's important to remember that like with all human writings, the Gospel writers didn't realize that it was important to write these things down until long after Jesus had died and had risen. As things were happening, their minds were literally being blown. So they consulted each other's accounts and helped each other remember things, and their accounts have slight differences due to perspective and writing style and what they were personally focusing on. The same thing happens with witnesses in court.
So let's meet them.
Matthew was a Jew and a tax collector who Jesus met early in his ministry and called to follow Him. He was very a very meticulous record-keeper and you can see in his Gospel, that it was written for Jews to understand how Jesus was the promised Messiah. Read more here.
Mark was a companion of Paul and Peter and is mentioned frequently in Acts. It is thought that he wrote the very first Gospel, taken directly from the account of Peter. That is, he wrote down what Peter told him. Mark was there when Jesus was arrested. Read more here.
Luke was a Greek and a physician, and a companion of Paul in forming the early Church. His Gospel is aimed more at the Gentiles and was written to bring non-Jews to Christ. Luke is also the author of Acts. Read more here.
John was another of the 12 like Matthew, the son of Zebedee and the younger brother of James. A fisherman like Peter, John followed Jesus at his calling at the Sea of Galilee. He stood at the cross as Jesus died. Read more here.
It's important to know that these were real people who knew Jesus and saw what happened, and who wrote about it while the memories were still relatively fresh. How do we know this?
How can we be sure that what we are reading today are the actual writings of these witnesses and not something that someone made up later and left for us to find?
Historians use something called the study of manuscripts to to ascertain the authenticity of historical documents. But that's for the next blog. In the meantime, take a look at what they wrote! Read the Gospels and meet Jesus!
Drop us a note if you have questions.
Until next time...
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